Things I Love
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Do This Things I Hate Things I Love News Have a juicy tale of romantic woe? We want to hear it!
Posted by Reader staff on 01.17.13 at 03:30 PM
- linda/Wikimedia Commons
Send your submissions to vday@chicagoreader.com by midnight on Sun 1/27.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Things I Love Weekly Top Five Film Weekly Top Five: Roman Polanski films
Posted by Drew Hunt on 01.13.13 at 09:00 AM
It goes without saying that Polanski is a controversial figure. However, his prior transgressions aside, he remains one of my very favorite directors. I greatly admire his elegance as a filmmaker, the sophistication he shows even when dealing in decidedly uncomfortable and otherwise lurid subject matter. The following are my five favorite films of his, and I welcome any and all counterarguments.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Things I Love Music Introducing killer high school punks the Ungnomes
Posted by Luca Cimarusti on 01.10.13 at 02:00 PM
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Do This Things I Love Music Ian's Party is back and bigger than ever
Posted by Luca Cimarusti on 01.03.13 at 06:48 AM
After its inaugural year, Ian's Party grew into a multiday, multivenue festival, attracting bands from not only Chicago but around the country. This year's edition, which kicks off on Fri 1/4 and wraps up on Sun 1/6, takes place at both Township and Quenchers. A festival pass will cost you $30; the Township shows are 18+ and cost $12 individually, while the Quenchers shows are 21+ and $8. Almost 40 bands are on the bill, including a handful of ass kickers such as the Brokedowns, Paper Mice, Wide Angles, Meat Wave, and Absolutely Not. Other notable sets over the course of the weekend include a bunch of solid, long-running local punk rock acts like the Arrivals, the Bollweevils, and Canadian Rifle.
For a full schedule, visit the festival's Facebook page.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Things I Love Year in Review Music My Best of 2012 Spotify playlist—five hours of the year's most pleasure-inducing music
Posted by Miles Raymer on 12.28.12 at 06:52 AM
At this point the list is as close to exactly how I want it as it's going to get. Spotify's library has a lot of pretty huge gaps. There aren't a lot of mixtapes on it, so I couldn't include anything from either of Action Bronson's extremely rewarding album-length releases of the year, or Charli XCX's "Forgiveness", and I had to put Jeremih's "773 Love" on there instead of the superior "Fuck U All the Time" because that's the only song from his amazing Late Nights with Jeremih mixtape that Spotify has. And, increasingly, the best hip-hop and dance music is being released straight to the Internet track by track without coming anywhere near an actual record label, so the mind-blowing amount of good music that came out via SoundCloud this year is almost entirely absent. But all in all I think it's a fair representation of my listening this year.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Things I Love Film My favorite films of 2012
Posted by Drew Hunt on 12.27.12 at 01:30 PM
I was lucky enough to attend that screening, and I marveled at what I saw. (Read my account of that evening here.) Almost in spite of the 70-millimeter format, which best suits deep-focus photography and broad vistas, Anderson’s film works mainly in compact compositions and features a good number of close-ups. However, Anderson shoots the faces of his actors as if they're grand landscapes, capturing their various imperfections and unique contours. Not hurting matters are Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, two of the greatest actors alive today, both of them capable of grand, emotive facial gestures as well as more contemplative method styles. Whenever I struggled with the film's occasionally aimless narrative, I simply studied their faces. Suddenly, everything made sense. During instances when Anderson did pull the camera back for some wider shots—I'm thinking of the motorcycle scene, in particular—the effect was equally as stunning. Seeing the film in 70-millimeter was a truly singular experience that is undoubtedly lost when seeing it projected in a different manner.
I selected the rest of my top ten based solely on my emotional and intellectual response to their particular styles. These are the films that stuck with me the most.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Things I Love Film To Kill a Mockingbird and the kindest cut
Posted by Ben Sachs on 12.21.12 at 02:07 PM
My favorite moment of To Kill a Mockingbird, which screened at the Film Center on Wednesday night from a beautiful new 35-millimeter print, is a brief cutaway shot to Scout in an early scene. Atticus Finch is tucking her into bed and telling her of the jewelry she'll inherit when she's old enough to take responsibility for it. Gregory Peck's performance as Atticus is justly revered; it's authoritative but warm, and above all conveys great deliberation. So director Robert Mulligan creates a subtle shock when he breaks up Peck's monologue, which had been going on in a single take, with an insert of Mary Badham folding her hands behind her head with the graceless spontaneity of a real ten-year-old child. Badham, it's well known, was an Alabama kid with no acting experience prior to Mockingbird, and Mulligan dotes on her amateurishness with a mix of paternal and ethnographic fascination.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Cycling Things I Love Two Wheels News It goes both ways: the Dearborn bike lane gives Rahm bragging rights and cyclists a protected ride
Posted by Kevin Warwick on 12.19.12 at 06:44 PM
- Andrea Bauer
- Red bike means stop
Sure, cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists are going to need a bit to acclimate to the protected, bidirectional lane that opened this past Friday on Dearborn Avenue. It can be a peculiar, discombobulating thing riding south when all of the auto traffic on the one-way avenue is flowing north—though, let's be real, most cyclists have undoubtedly saved a few minutes of their lives by cutting the wrong way down a side street. And with the bike-specific traffic lights and left-turn indicators painted on the pavement, urban cyclists are much more visible than previously. Not a bad thing in the least—just a very different thing.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Things I Love Arts The Internet People Week The spookily fantastic tweets of @arealliveghost
Posted by Asher Klein on 12.18.12 at 06:49 AM
- profile picture of @arealliveghost kimmy walters
- Boo . . . ?
I have often been a Twitter evangelist, and that's partly because of the amazing stuff I read coming from People Issue subject Kimmy Walters, one of the nicest people you'll ever meet and a gifted social mediaite. How good is she? I once responded to a really great tweet with a marriage proposal. We didn't know each other. I don't think I'm the only one who's done that.
I fear that our hour-long conversation, condensed into a more digestible format by my patient editor, took for granted that its reader would understand just how sincere and true her tweets as @arealliveghost can be, especially for a member of the loose coalition of Weird Tweeters, who write more to build linguistic muscle mass than anything (I think). So I collected a bunch of her best tweets after the jump, to point out that if you aren't one of her 11,000-odd followers, you should be. (If you're not on Twitter, that's another problem, dad.)
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Things I Love Weekly Top Five Film Weekly Top Five: An ode to "the soul of film noir," Robert Mitchum
Posted by Drew Hunt on 12.16.12 at 04:00 PM
Mitchum has been one of my favorite actors for some time now, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to share my five favorite performances of his. In a tip of the hat to my buddies at Filmspotting, I'm calling this my Harry Powell Memorial List. Check it out after the jump.
